HELP!!!

This is a forum to discuss legislation and legal matters pertaining to the rights and welfare of dogs. Please remember to counter ideas and opinions with which you don't agree with friendly and helpful advice and responses.

I have a neighbor just filed a complaint agianst me because my boys bark when outside, in a secure fenced in yard I may add. They bark becuase strays wondering in to our yard or at the dogs that are tied up across the street. And of cousre they bark when in side the house when people come in to the drive way or knock on the door. Thats one of their jobs, to let me know someone is there who shouldn't be. I always make them come in when they start barking outside. The nieghbors on either side of us have never complianed. The complaint came from the women behind us.
I have heard rumors that she has done this before to others and forced them to either get rid of their dogs and have them put down by court order. Neither of those things are an option to me, my dogs are my life, they are my children!!!! Any advice would be greatly appercaited.

I can see where she is coming from as I too hate barking dogs. I would suggest talking to her and asking her about the dogs. Sometimes dogs do things that their owners don't know about (ie: my neighbors in Anchorage would leave and their dogs would routinely bark until 4 AM, and they had no idea until I lost my temper and told them that if I didn't get anymore sleep, I was going to file a complaint). Also, it's good if you can straighten it out with her and try to come to a compromise.

On the flip side, she may just be one of those people who's power-hungry and isn't happy unless they are in charge and bossing people around. If she is, I'd suggest talking to her. If you can't compromise or come to a good conclusion, try to ignore her and keep your dogs as quiet as possible (ie: even any prebarking should be scolded immediately, etc.).

if she does report you for your dogs barking have your other neihbors talk to the officers about the amout the dogs bark, when they bark, and how you handle it. if the officers get other information about the situation then they may dismiss the woman as a trouble-maker. she might be one of those " i hate dogs/animals people" or just plain mean. if nothing else set up a tape recorder or video recorder to capture a whole day in your household(mainly the dogs) to show just how often they bark. good luck and keep us posted.

Kallie's advice is good. I'd also try and track those rumors to their source. That would be a good way to find out what this woman's angle is. If she is just an antagonist I would make the first move and get a restraining order slapped on her to make sure she doesn't come near your property. Any evidence of her behavior that you can get from her last victim is a good thing to have. Some people are just mean. Someone who was willing to be reasonable would never put someone in a position where they had to put their dogs down, at least I'd like to think that's true. Filing a complaint is one thing. A court order forcing someone to kill their dog--that's just nuts.

Gone through this-for quite a long time. First off- talk to your neighbor. Ask them to call you when they are bothering her. Since strays are your problem, look into a price of a privacy fence. Of course, since your dogs were trained to bark when someone is comming, this might have a draw back. Look at your cities (or counties) ordinace book. Read everything that has to deal with dogs, noise, and what enforments the city has. Look at your zoning. If your zoned comerical or residental you got tons of power in your hands. Record the time/date your dogs bark. Everytime. So if the complaint date/time doesnt match up, you have some power to ya. If things get really bad-call a lawyer. Prepare for court. Get as much info and be as well educated as you can. Also, sometimes, for a barking complain to be legal, an animal control officer has to witness the dogs barking for a certain ammount of time with no attempt of the owner trying to stop them. See if your city is like that.
Of course, somepeople just complain to well, complain. Theyre is sometimes nothing you can do about them. I hope for you your neighbor is not like this. For about 3 years we had 2 neighbors complain about the dogs. My dogs very rarly barked. If they did, it was only for about 5 mins about 3 times a day. Twice at feeding, and once when schools got out. Yet, we had an extraordanary ammount of complaints. There were over 20 dogs in a 6 block radius of our house. Try and pin the dogs barking to mine. Police were called out twice. Thankfully, the officer that came out was the head person for the K-9 units. But still. It was horrible. We had to give up one of our dogs. My first dog. JoJo, where ever you are, I hope you have as good of a home as you did here. Also, thankfully, we were able to find a nice patch of paradise and move. Now everyone is happy. We dont have to worry about complaints, and Physco and Nutsy get thier perfect utopia. For your sake, I hope your neighbor isnt like these people. And if they are, I know what your going through, and I wish you all the best of luck! You have my full support.

Aurora~ I will start writing down the times when the bark. An when they do start barking outside they are made to come in. Our county ordinnce say that barking dog IN a house is not an issue, there is nothing that can be done about that. They are ever outside before 9 am unless its a quick potty trip. The animal control officer made it sound as if she was a trouble maker, and I did stress to him that my dogs are never outside when I am not home.

And I may start to record the goings on inside the house when I am not home to see if they bark when I am not home. They are only trained to alert me. So I need to see of they are doing it when I am not home, I think they like to slee alot

Thankful I have already been thinking about moving, this may be the push I needed.